The field of the invention is document printing and more specifically network based batch printing of documents on remotely located client side printers.
While the present invention is applicable to many different industries, in order to simplify this explanation the invention will be described in the context of an exemplary medical facility. In addition, for the purposes of this explanation it will be assumed that forty different unit managers work at the exemplary facility and that each manager requires a different set of five reports to be delivered every other Friday.
Most medical facilities include several separate units, each unit managed by a different manager responsible for delivering services to facility customers within a prescribed budget. For example, a typical medical facility will include an intensive care unit, a laboratory, a medical/surgery unit, a radiology unit and so on. In order to stay within a budget unit managers typically require some type of report that describes the costs associated with running their units.
Early systems for reporting cost and other operational information typically required the unit managers to develop their own cost tracking schemes. As facilities have grown and unit manager duties have increased, medical facilities have increasingly turned to hiring facility administrators to develop and provide cost tracking tools.
Thus, facility administrators have developed reporting tools that periodically deliver cost and other information to unit managers. For instance, unit managers may receive cost tracking reports on a pay period (e.g., every other Friday) basis that can be used to determine if the particular units are within budget.
One common way to provide tracking reports has been to provide printed copies of reports to unit managers. In these cases the facility administrator typically prints out the reports via an administrator's computer/printer and sends the reports via inter or intra-facility mail.
To streamline the printing process where hardcopy reporting is used, systems have been developed that facilitate automatic server side batch printing of reports on a periodic basis. For instance, in the example described above where there are forty unit managers and each requires five separate reports every other Friday, a batch printing system can be set up so that all of the reports are printed out for routing to the unit managers at the prescribed times. Thereafter the administrator would arrange to have the reports delivered to the requesting managers.
While hard copy reporting has been used in many cases, this solution has several shortcomings. First, this solution requires the administrator to print out many different reports. Similarly, this solution requires routing of each of the reports to the correct unit manager recipients. Often there are many different ways to configure a report and each unit manager may want his reports to be configured in a special way that is distinct form all other reports. In addition, different reports may include different types of information and therefore some unit managers may require more than one report per reporting period. Report scheduling, configuring, printing and routing require administrative time and therefore are relatively expensive.
Second, even where a report is delivered to a unit manager, there is no guarantee that the report will be timely noticed by and reviewed by the manager. In many cases administrative reports are simply heaped onto a pile of other reports and published information and unit managers will not review the reports until the information therein is stale.
Third, when a manager wants to change his reporting preferences, the manager has to contact the administrator and request changes to either report configuration, report types or both. Thereafter, the administrator has to make the requested changes to make sure that the manager receives the desired reports. Clearly this changing process requires administrative time and requires some knowledge on the part of the manager regarding different reporting types and also how to change required reports.
Fourth, in any system requiring human intervention there is always a delay between the time when information is ripe and the time when information can be delivered in a report format. While not fatal, these days can ripple through the reporting system to cause the end result, analysis of the data to take corrective action where necessary, to be further delayed.
Fifth, hardcopy reports can be misplaced either during routing or after delivery to a manager. In these cases a manager would have to request another set of reports from an administrator.
Sixth, while a manager may want a specific set of reports on a repetitive basis (i.e., every other Friday), the manager may only sporadically want some other report to be able to check on costs or other facility operating parameters. Also, in this regard, the manager may want to print a report at a time different than the prescribed time (e.g., between every other Friday). Again, in this case, the manager would have to work through the administrator to obtain the desired report.
With the advent of networked computing systems new and useful ways to distribute information have been developed. For example, database information can now be accessed on the Internet via any of several different commercially available browser packages. In this regard a database host server may be equipped to provide information in hypertext markup language (html) format that defines an on-screen report format as well as provides substantive information to be included in the on-screen report. Html on-screen reports can be browsed (hence the term “browser”) by scrolling vertically and often horizontally and can be printed out on client side (i.e., at a unit manager's printer) local printers by the separate managers (i.e., a manager examining a report can typically print the report by selecting a “Print” icon via the browser.
On-screen Internet-based reporting schemes are advantageous for several reasons. For instance, these schemes make information available immediately upon storing of the information in a database. In addition, these schemes allow users to access massive amounts of information and often allow users to select one of several different ways in which to view information. Moreover, when an on-line reporting system is implemented, there is no need for an administrator to print out and route reports. Instead, whenever a manager requires a report, the manager can access the online system and obtain the information required.
Unfortunately, despite the advantages of on-screen reporting, there are also some disadvantages with such systems. First, while browser scrolling features may be advantageous when used on a display screen, when on-screen browser information is printed out, the on-screen information is not formatted to fit on standard sized paper and therefore, either information extends laterally off a printed page or extends vertically off the end of the page.
Second, often the html screen shots include html formatting codes that have nothing to do with the substantive information in the reports but that show up upon printing. Html format codes and the scrolling problem together cause printed html documents to appear jumbled and of low quality in many cases.
Third, where a manager is required to access reports periodically upon his own volition, often the manager will either forget to access the reports, will not access all of the relevant information or reports or will access the reports after the information therein is irrelevant (i.e., in an untimely fashion). This accessing problem is exacerbated where the unit manager accesses the reporting browser only seldomly (e.g., every other week) and where the manager has to search the database for desired information. When a manager only seldomly accesses a tool, often the manager is not very efficient at using the tool and such inefficiency often discourages use. Even with well designed browsers the task of searching a large database for specific information can be tedious which, again, discourages use.
Fourth, where a manager requires more than one report the manager has to search the database for each of the desired reports and must print out each of the desired reports separately. For instance, in the present example where each manager requires five separate reports, the manager has to find each of the five reports and has to separately print out each of the reports—a time consuming process.
One other network-based solution to the information distribution problem discussed above is to send reports to managers as parts of e-mails or, in the alternative, as separate attachments to e-mails. E-mail format typically does not include sufficient formatting information to provide a professional looking report and therefore this approach is not much better than the on-screen reporting systems. On the other hand, e-mail attachments can be formatted in acceptable manner such that, when printed, the printed product has a professional appearance.
Despite the advantages of delivering reports via e-mail attachment, once again this solution has disadvantages. First, this solution, like the on-screen solution, requires managers to step through printing sequences several times in order to print each attached report. Second, to modify the reports, report configurations or the times when reports are delivered for a manager, again, the manager has to work through the administrator. Third, where it is necessary to provide a searchable system so that managers can access data at any time and in any format they choose, a separate on-screen system would have to be supported.